How should I blow up a motorbike?

It's an Aprilia RSV-R, if that makes any difference.

One of my hobbies is writing, short stories mostly.
http://users.tpg.com.au/kkmiller/insiders

I've got a young adult novel being taken up by a publisher, so it's time
to knock some vague stuff into shape. Through the story a boy burns down
a teacher's motorbike. Considering that I've never burned a bike before,
time to consult the experts.

So far the method is ... the boy puts the small burner from a Trangia
cookset (google it) inside the fairing. The heat builds up and a while
later the bike goes up in flames, hopefully with a big bang.

So, what does it take to get an explosion out of a bike's fuel tank?

Anybody?
Kim

 

Dynamite..they wont explode without some explosive.

 

100g of C4

Nev..
'07 XB12X

 

100g of C4 down each plug hole.

Boxer

 

C4 burns quite nicely (and fiercely) if you light it with a cigarette
lighter. Beats hexamine. If you want it to go bang, you need to
stick detonator in it. And I recommend 500g for a proper job.
No point pissing about...


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

The boy cuts the fuel line, lets about half a litre drain onto the
ground under the bike, making sure he is upwind and has got no petrol
on himself or his clothes, chucks a match at the petrol-soaked ground
and runs like the clappers. Some time during the ensuing inferno,
the fuel tank should explode.

Is that good enough for you?

Works quite well on Harleys I believe...


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

'There are few problems that cannot be resolved without a sufficient and
well placed quantity of explosives.'

So, when you get it done, do tell if this resolves his issues, and does he
get the girl?

Best, Andrew

 

In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:31:20 +1100

I believe that for petrol to explode you need petrol vapour under
pressure and a flame.

Your method has this problem... no petrol vapour. The tank might get
warm but is unlikely to go boom as the flame isn't in contact.

If you just want to burn it, then he has to pull or cut a fuel hose,
throw a flaming rag at the puddle and run.

If you want a delayed action, then he needs a delayed way of burning
that petrol.

If you want a bang, can't help - Hollywood says it happens all the
time, the fireys I've talked to say it doesn't.

Zebee

 

I can't help wondering how someone would discover that you can safely
light a high explosive with a cigarette lighter. What were they doing?

Moike
(and who discovered that blue vein cheese tastes good?)

 

Zebee Johnstone is of the opinion:

And I think the Mythbusters agree, so it must be true[1].

In the absence of military-grade aftermarket accessories (such as the C4
proposed upthread), the best way to get an impressive boom out of a motor
vehicle is to install an LPG tank and really torch it. Personal experience
says that you will get an ear-shattering, if not an earth-shattering, kaboom
out of that. Unfortunately, I don't know of too many LPG-fitted bikes
running around.

The next best thing is to have some magnesium in the build of the thing --
engine block, wheels, etc. I don't know what bikes might have magnesium
bits as standard (but I'm sure Google or some of the other denizens here
could provide), but your victim could always have poured a lot of extra
money into the thing and tricked it up with all sorts of combustible
goodies. The only thing with magnesium is that it's got to get pretty
damned hot to go off; a bit of a petrol fire around the wheels ain't going
to do it. Having the tyres cook off first might do the trick, though...
Once it goes, though, it's a shit to extinguish. Get someone to come up
with a garden hose just after the mags have started and spray it. Mmmm,
flying magnesium...

- Matt

[1] Caution: may not be true.

 

I understand that the compression of the cylinders and spark from the plug
and fuel burn are enough to trigger the C4. I have never tried it but was
told of this method by a Vietnam Vet who used it to good effect.

Boxer

 

OK, I've abandoned the Hollywood exploding helicopter genre, we're
dealing with sixteen year olds here. A bit of a whoosh will do, the main
thing is that the bike goes up and can't be rescued by some quick
thinker who knows where the fire extinguisher is.

The Trangia burner will burn for an hour or so, it should be getting
pretty hot inside the fairing by then. Time for a fuel line to rupture
or something? There must be a fuel line in there somewhere.

Kim

 

Oh, yeah, the boy gets the girl, but it's not the bike-burning boy. And
the burning bike is part of him resolving his issues, as you so rightly
understood it.

The bike-burner gets to smirk at the burning bike, until another kid
dies and he gets arrested. His work's done by then and the book proceeds
without him.

Kim

 

Doctor Shifty is of the opinion:

Best thing there is to prime the bike so it all goes up at once. A burning
fuel line (assuming that nobody notices the trangia before then) isn't much
of a challenge to extinguish.

There's fuel lines running from underneath the tank, but you'd need to get
flame pretty much on them to pop 'em, since the engine gets quite hot too so
the lines are designed to withstand a decent amount of heat.

On the other hand, perhaps we don't want to get too realistic, in case it
gives some junior pyromaniac a how-to guide. <grin>

- Matt

 

Grunts in Vietnam used it big time. We all used to use C4 to boil
water for our brews when out on patrol. about four times faster than
wating for a poxy hexamine tablet to do its thing. Very handy when
you don't know how long you've got for a quick cuppa....

We used to get it off the Engineers we had with us. I swear most of
the C4 used in Vietnam was used to boil water.

How was it discovered that you could do this? Dunno. We learned form
each other. What were we thinking? "We gotta get outa this place,
if it's the last thing we ever do."


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

If a vet said it, it must be true. ;-)


Onya bike...

Gerry

 

On 8 Oct 2008 19:33:15 GMT, Zebee Johnstone wrote:

[...]

I'm reminded of an experience during a work stint in Auckland a few
years ago.
I decided to wander down to a corner store for some milk, and took a
shortcut through the grounds of a cathedral. There on the concrete, in
front of a chapel door, was a near new Ninja, totally engulfed in
flames. By the time I got close, the flames were at least 30 m high.
This being Auckland, no one seemed to be taking much notice. I saw
someone talking into a mobile phone as I passed, and some way down the
street I saw a fire engine heading back toward the chapel in full
siren song.
I came back the same way. There was a heap of blackened twisted metal
covered in firey foam in front of the chapel door.
Guess what?
No explosion. Not even a little one.

 

A small disposable camping gas canister lodged between the exhaust headers
should do the trick.

Boxer

 

He was a RAEME Sargent so who knows?

Boxer

 

How long's this thread been up?

And *no-one* has suggesting applying lips to the exhaust pipe?

Really!